You are here

If Iâ€™m Presidential Candidate

Focus on keeping jobs here, provide money to stimulate small businesses, deter corporations from incorporating overseas by canceling contracts if they do outsource or incorporate overseas. Punish businesses who hire illegal immigrants; they break the law too, and with impunity.

[Column: The Way I See It]

I dislike labels, and I hate being told what I can, and cannot do, or be or feel.

I'm a registered Democrat, but I have voted Conservative, Moderate, and whatever flavors of the month appealed to me that seemed to be geared toward working for the people of the United States.

Consider, if I ran for President, I'd focus on the people, forget all the bullcrap. Here is what I would do:

On Education: Stop throwing money at schools, ensure that those failing have anOpportunity to graduate, or, if they prefer, learn a trade and move on. Students who want to learn can stay, possibly take advantage of college scholarships funded by the government, especially in areas we are falling behind Japan and Europe in.

On Abortion: I'm torn, but would find a way to balance my personal beliefs that abortionkills, with my other belief that we should not legislate what women can and cannot do with their bodies. I think a town hall meeting needs to be held on that issue with America. Oh, and people who kill abortion providers should face the maximum penalty of the law. Killing in the name of God never worked for the Inquisition, it didn't work in Iraq, and it won't work elsewhere. God says “thou shalt not kill,” how hard is that to understand?

On Taxes: Flat 20% of your paycheck, no matter how much you earn—this will take careof a national healthcare plan - medical and dental, social security and retirement savings and will be capped forever. Any overflows Congress will have to budget for.

On Congressional Pork: No more. End it all—the people are tired of their money being spent on crap.

On Immigration: You break the law, you are deported for life. Any kids will be deported with you. In fact, I need to hear from America on whether we should adopt a system like the British where individuals born there are not automatically granted citizenship. Why should we continue to subsidize people who break the law? Recent protesters demanded that the US give them a path to citizenship. Hello, breaking the law? Why should we accommodate you?

On Elections: No more soft money, no more lobbying, no more distortion of the politicalprocess. We are a Republic—we need to be a democracy, one voice, and one vote. Enough said. No more lopsided election financing: everyone donates $1 or more and the public pays for the candidates. No more buying candidates by corporations.

On Stem Cell Research: If there is any other way to get information on cures for new diseases, let me know. If not, let us use discarded tissue to get some solutions to Parkinson’s, Alzheimer's and others.

On National Security: Find Osama bin Laden, and take him down, and his network. The Iraqis have until September 2008 to get their act together, at which time the UN will probably take over. Focus on security at a national level. Determine if al Qaeda worked with homegrown terrorists on that anthrax scare or at any other time, and makethis country more secure.

On Nuclear Weapons: We have them; other countries feel they need to have them, even our allies such as Israel are reported to have them, what's the big deal? The Star Wars defense system can knock them down, right? How many billions did we spend onthat?

On the Economy: People need jobs, corporations like to outsource jobs. Focus on keeping jobs here, provide money to stimulate small businesses, deter corporations from incorporating overseas by canceling contracts if they do outsource or incorporate overseas. Punish businesses who hire illegal immigrants; they break the law too, and with impunity. Time to take care of this.

On Government Waste: People are tired of supporting delinquent corporations. The Savings and Loan scandal will be investigated and all the people's money will be returned -with interest. Iraq, based on a lies, costs a billion dollars a day, will be repaid to the American people by the “decision” makers. Any legislation that does not reflect the will of the people and was written or authored by a lobbyist, business, credit card or bank corporation or mortgage company will be reviewed and overturned and made over in the image of the people.

On Foreign Affairs: We need to live well with our global neighbors—enough said.

On Global Warming: Time to stop it. Sign Kyoto and move on. Invest in renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gases, curb water use, and use more solar energy at home, work, or wherever.

On War and Peace: Peace is good, war is bad, let the troops work best at home defending our freedom directly, not in a foreign land. What does that mean anyway, defending my freedom in Iraq? How?

On the Budget: Clinton balanced it while dealing with Monica and a hostile congress, how hard is that? It can be done, I will do it. This is the example I want to set for America to balance their budgets at home, it starts with the Oval Office.

On Cable TV: I for one am tired of paying for commercials, I want commercial free TV.On Identity Theft: Tough penalties for abusers, including government agencies who routinely lose hard drives full of data and corporations who fail to report losses. I would take a hard line against countries in which hackers live, such as Russia, where hackers operate with impunity.

There are many more points to touch on, but very limited space. In any event, if you see my name on the ballot, you know what I stand for. I consider myself a moderate and will work with Republicans or Democrats to achieve results for the people of the United States.

Thomas is a Black Star News contributing columnist

To subscribe to or advertise in New York’s leading Pan African weekly investigative newspaper, please call (212) 481-7745 or send a note to Milton@blackstarnews.com